A nanoimprint technique has been studied and developed in recent years. This technique is designed to produce a mold by forming an ultra fine transfer pattern on a quartz substrate or the like using electron beam lithography or the like, and to transfer the transfer pattern formed on the mold to a molded product by pressing the mold against the molded product at a predetermined pressure (see NPL 1, for example).
Imprinting methods using lithographic techniques have been developed as methods of molding a fine pattern (a transfer pattern) in the nanometer order at low costs. Such molding methods are broadly classified into a thermal imprinting method and a UV imprinting method.
In the thermal imprinting method, a mold is pressed against a substrate while a resin made of a thermoplastic polymer (a thermoplastic resin) is heated to a temperature with which the resin becomes sufficiently flowable, and the resin is fed into a fine pattern. Then, the mold and the resin are cooled down to a glass transition temperature or below, and the mold is detached after the fine pattern transferred to the substrate is solidified.
The UV imprinting method uses a transparent mold that can transmit light. The mold is pressed against a UV curable liquid which is exposed to UV radiation light. The liquid is solidified by being exposed to the radiation light for an appropriate period of time, and the mold is detached after the fine pattern is transferred thereto.
In another aspect of the transfer process, a transfer pattern formed on a mold may be once transferred to a sheet material, and the sheet material to which the transfer pattern is transferred may be used as a secondary mold (a sheet-shaped mold) in order to transfer the transfer pattern on the sheet-shaped mold to a molded product.
Meanwhile, a device shown in PTL 1 (see FIG. 9 and the like in the literature), for example, is known as a device configured to detach a sheet-shaped mold from a molded product by using a roller in the case where the sheet-shaped mold adheres to the molded product as a consequence of transferring a fine transfer pattern formed on the sheet-shaped mold to the molded product.